Easter frills

Sad but true, come this Sunday evening and on there is a high chance of finding that fake plastic green grass from Easter baskets thrown out into the garbage. If you are still working on decorating Easter baskets why not reuse the paper you already have lying about your homes and make your own shredded grass strips! Take newspapers, magazines, or yellow phone books (do people still have those anymore) and line your baskets that way. It could actually be fun to start shredding paper (by hand - no machine shredders, it defeats the purpose) with your kids.

Once you're done with Easter fun just recycle your paper or reuse for other projects!

Dye of Natural Causes

Yes, Easter is upon us. Before you buy your egg dyeing kit consider dyeing your eggs naturally with spices and fruit & vegetable juices!

Thanks to the help of this site I was able to see what natural ingredients make perfect natural dyes.

Blue: use blueberries
Brown: use coffee or tea
Green: use spinach, liquid chlorophyll, or chlorell
Orange: use chili powder, cayenne, paprika,yellow onion skins, or carrots
Pink: use beet juice, cranberries, or raspberries
Purple: use red wine, red cabbage leaves, grape juice
Red: annatto, pomegranate juice, or red onion skin
Yellow: use turmeric, saffron, orange or lemon peels, or ground cumin

You will also need:
- hardboiled eggs
- egg carton or cooling rack
- spoon, fork, or tongs
- saucepan
- veggie/olive oil
- white vinegar, water
- possibly a strainer of sorts if you are dealing with spinach, coffee grounds, tea leaves, etc. but not necessary

In a saucepan, add a couple of tablespoons of your spice of choice to about 2 cups of water. If you are using veggies, add about 3 or 4 handfuls (chopped up). If you’re going the juice route just skip the water all together. Simmer your concoction for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you’re happy with the colour. Keep in mind that the eggs will not be as dark as the mixture.

When you’re happy with the shade, turn the heat off. Add white vinegar to the liquid (3-4 tablespoons to every cup of liquid). Dip your hardboiled egg into the dye and wait. The longer you wait, the deeper the colour will be.

Use a spoon, fork, or tongs to carefully lift out your egg and place on a wire rack or egg carton. Let dry. Add a little veggie/olive oil for luster. Let dry again. And voila! You’ve got yourself a naturally dyed egg!

I tried this out tonight to be able to add some personal visuals for you. Luckily I had some tumeric in my cupboard so my guinea egg was going to be yellow. To the right is my tumeric mixture. It looked like a gross protein shake! You can see the egg (kinda) at the bottom soaking up the juices.

And the end result! My naturally dyed egg! Yeah, I'm pretty proud.

The #6

I always try to be conscious of what I purchase and its packaging, if any. I'll admit, I'm not perfect so the occasional Styrofoam take-out package or salmon fish tray slips into my possession. I know, I know. I should be better and avoid these products all together but when I find that I falter I do my best to recycle these plastics.

Did you know that you can recycle your Styrofoam material? From your coffee cups to meat trays to packing peanuts (and any other #6 polystyrene plastics for that matter) all are widely accepted by curbside recycling programs all over so don't throw them into the garbage! They can be made into cassette tapes and insulation. Or you can always reuse your packing peanuts or give them (along with your other Styrofoam material) to your local post office or shipping store so they can reuse/recycle them.

Check out the Earth 911 Website to make sure your curbside program accepts #6 plastics. If I'm going to have trash then I gotta be responsible about it, right?

A Sight To Behold

I had some time to kill before dinner with my mother yesterday so instead of hanging around her house I decided to spend the next hour and a half of downtime finishing my book (Life of Pi). The local Starbucks was packed, the library was closed, and although the peace and quiet of a church would serve perfectly for finishing off my book I just couldn't bring myself to go in and lounge about in the pews. So I decided to drive around the neighbourhood I grew up in and find a nice quiet street. Right by my old Elementary School seemed like a fitting place to read about a boy and his tiger. I parked my car, watched some young girls skateboard around the schoolyard, and lo and behold, what one of many changes did I notice at my old alma mater? Blue recycling bins in front of every classroom!


My eyes widened and my heart sang to see that the school was making it easier for the kids to recycle (and at such an impressionable age, too!) And they were even utilizing the blue residential bins. What a sight to behold on a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Green Drinking

Want a festively green pint for your St. Paddy's day drinking? Dye your drink au naturelle by adding liquid chlorophyll (ask for it at your local health supplement store) to your pint or even try straining juiced spinach through cheese cloth (or reuse clean nylon stockings). Bottoms up!

Green Search Engine

Check it out! I've seen many specialized search engines in my time. Some were skinned for music artists (I saw one for Maroon 5) and there are others that allow you to donate to a charity. This one that I found is more niche and caters to green charities and organizations. It's called ClimateGift

You get to choose from 3 charities to donate to (The World Resources Institute, Reef Check, and The Earth Island Institute). You have to click around on the ads to funnel money into the organization's pockets and you can't miss the ads themselves! That homepage is pretty much packed. It is pretty cool, though, because along with ads, the homepage (like Google) has a little widget area for that organization, and links to other green sites. They even have a carbon calculator! You can also customize that landing page (like Google), add your own tabs and content.

It's worth checking out. I am so used to Google but I'll give this a try.

The Last Straw

Just say no to straws! Is it really necessary to sip your drink through a straw when it is perfectly fine to drink from the cup? Everytime I go to restaurants I see waiters and waitresses with apron pockets full of straws and I think of all those straws being used and then tossed into the garbage after every table is cleared. It's been easy so to refuse the straw altogether when my drink is brought over but it's tough when they already put the straw into the drink for you with the little bit of paper on the tip (you know what I'm talking about). So I think I just need to be better at letter them know right off the bat that I don't need straw once I give the waiter/waitress my drink order.

The coffee stirrers at work? I have my own spoon from home that I keep in my desk drawer that I use to stir in my sugars into my teas. Sometimes if I am in a bind I put my sugar into my ceramic cup first then I pour in the liquid. Instant mixing! Silly, I know, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, n'est pas?